


After Dusk

by supergayjo



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Behavioral Analysis Unit (Criminal Minds), F/F, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Serial Killers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:48:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23897062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supergayjo/pseuds/supergayjo
Summary: After the murders of three teenaged girls, the police of Mount Pleasant, a small town in Oregon, asked the help of the Behavioral Analysis Unit to find the person responsible.OrJJ and Emily have been dating for several months, and it's getting harder and harder to keep their relationship a secret, especially when the case affects JJ more than usual.
Relationships: Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/Emily Prentiss
Comments: 70
Kudos: 238





	1. a day off

**Author's Note:**

> hi! I'm back, and this time with a longer fic, it's gonna be around 10 chapters, and I'll be posting on wednesdays and sundays. I really hope you'll like it. It's my first time writing a fanfiction that's more than 3 chapters so please be nice hahaha. But I'm also here to get better, so please tell me what you think, even if you didn't like it.  
> It's gonna be a Jemily fanfic but the case is gonna be a big part of the plot, so i hope you'll like it. 
> 
> just a reminder if you don't know me, I'm not used to write in english, it's not my first language, so there might be some mistakes or some weird turns of phrases. If you notice something, let me know and I'll correct it. 
> 
> anyways, i hope you'll like it!
> 
> Playlist on spotify : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ASfgqyj3nwx4a5tGlYaOO?si=atVZRnreTgqWHChvB_bErA

It was a Tuesday morning, the spring sunlight was shining through the curtains of JJ’s room. 

“Time to wake up, sleepy head” said JJ, softly while kissing her girlfriend on the cheek. 

Emily grunted and turned around to face her. “Please just five more minutes, it’s our day off”. 

They rarely had a day off in the middle of the week, but when it happened it was a real pleasure for everyone. But JJ had always been a morning person, so no matter what day it was, she was up early, much to the discontent of Emily, who was definitely not a morning person. 

Emily looked at her girlfriend with puppy eyes, which made JJ give in every single time. She couldn’t resist her. Also, she never said no to cuddling with her, it made her feel safe and at peace. 

She tilted her head and smiled at the sight of her facial expression “okay five more minutes and then we’re up”

“Perfect, come here” Emily was now on her back, with her arms wide opened, and a smirk on her face.

JJ moved to rest her head on Emily’s bare shoulder and put her arms on her naked stomach. She exhaled, relaxing all of her muscles. It was her favorite part. Of everything. The silence, her girlfriend’s smooth skin, hearing her heartbeat, smelling her hair, communicating without words. It was something so precious, it was those moments that made it all worth it. The sneaking around, the lying to their friends. As long as they had that, those moments, they were okay with that. 

But it was starting to get harder, not being able to comfort each other the way they’d like to after a tough case on the flight back, not being able to slow dance at Rossi’s backyard parties. And they wanted to share their love with the people they considered family. Sometimes, they’d feel selfish for not sharing something that was really important, especially because it had been going on for a long time.

“When are we gonna tell them?” Asked Emily, reading in JJ’s thoughts. 

“Soon? But I want to tell Henry and Michael first. You know what they told me yesterday before I dropped them off at Will’s?”

“No?” Emily raised an eyebrow, curious.

“They asked me why I was always smiling, and Henry asked me if I was in love, because in the book he was reading, the little girl in love was always smiling and her cheeks would turn red, and when he asked me that…”

“Let me guess, you blushed?”

“Yeah, I did, but in my defence, I blush all the time so…” 

Emily chuckled “When do you wanna tell them?” 

“I was thinking, maybe today? Will has an appointment this afternoon and he asked me if I could take them, and I was thinking maybe I could introduce you? But that’s just if you want, I mean I get it if you’re not ready to meet them as my girlfriend”

“I love them, and they know me already, they’re kids, it’s not gonna change a lot of things, as long as they know I make their mommy really happy”. 

“You really do make me happy” 

JJ tighten her grip around her lover’s waist, her smile was wide, and it made Emily’s heart literally melt. 

“I love you JJ”

“I love you Emily, but now we gotta get up, we have a lot of things to do, c’mon” JJ was now standing up on her bed. 

“It’s already been five minutes? I don’t want to get up” Emily frowned like a child. 

“Emily, I’m gonna count to three, and if you’re not up-“

“Don’t use your mommy tone with me!” She crossed her arms and pouted. 

“If you act like a child, I’ll treat you like a child, it’s as simple as that. I’m starting… one…”

“JJ” Emily didn’t move, not even a little. 

“two…”

“You’re not impressing me Jennifer, it doesn’t work” 

Still no movement coming from the older woman.

JJ looked at her with a sharp eye “thr-“

“Okay I’m up” Emily had stood up so fast she almost fell, making JJ laugh. She would never admit it, but the young woman was actually really intimidating when she acted like that. No wonder her children were angels. 

“See? Works every time, no matter how old the child is”

Emily frowned before going into the bathroom. JJ grabbed some comfy clothes, she could use a break from her work clothes, even though she always felt so powerful in them. Today was their day off, and she was planning on enjoying it in every possible way. 

While Emily was still in the bathroom getting ready, JJ decided to cook some breakfast. Emily tried to do that once, and ended up almost burning the whole kitchen down, they even had to call the fire department. She’d never take that risk again, the only way she’d let her girlfriend cook in her kitchen again would be with some supervision. 

A few minutes later, breakfast was ready, tea was hot, bacon was ready, and Emily was finally ready to start the day. 

“Smells good” she said in a low voice as she hugged her girlfriend from behind, resting her head on her shoulder.

“Wait until you taste it, I used my secret recipe”

“hmm” Emily gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, then grabbed two plates, some orange juice and started setting the table. 

As they were both eating breakfast, JJ asked. “Do you think the team knows about us?”

“I’m not sure, I think they know something is going on, but they probably don’t know what it is exactly” 

“It’s been what, eight months?”

“Eight months and sixteen days, to be exact” Emily smiled, proud of her, she wasn’t usually the kind of person that keeps track things like that, but with JJ, it was different. Every single day she makes her happy and she falls more in love with that woman every time she puts her eyes on her, so it makes sense to count the days, it’s easy.

“Okay Mrs Spencer Reid” JJ started laughing. 

“What, I keep track” Said Emily as she finished her plate. 

“What I’m sure is that Garcia doesn’t know because if she did, she’d already be planning our future”

“Who said she isn’t already?” Emily raised her fork to emphasize her remark. 

“True”. JJ grabbed both of their plates to put them in the sink. “Okay, so this morning I thought we could go grab some coffee and take a walk in the park? And then we can come back here in time for Will to bring the kids”

“Sounds perfect, I need some serotonin from the sun, and god knows I need some coffee” said Emily, as she finished to clean the table. 

They liked spending their days off just the both of them. It was rare because JJ usually tried to have the kids that day, to spend some time with them. But sometimes they would be alone and just be a normal domestic couple, with their routines, and it felt good, it felt like they were both home. They thought about moving in together, and it was probably gonna happen soon, but before they could do that, they had to tell their close ones. Will already knew, it was one of the reasons they got divorced, JJ realized that she felt more by just looking at Emily than when she kissed him. At first, it was hard, but he eventually came to terms with it, deep down he just wanted his ex-wife to be happy, and he also had a new life with an adorable woman named Alicia, and Henry and Michael adored her. JJ’s parents didn’t know exactly what was going on, but they had an idea, and Emily’s mom was totally oblivious. But both JJ and Emily knew that most of their close onces were gonna be okay with them, so everything was good. 

“JJ, you comin’?” Asked Emily, standing on the doorstep. 

“Oh right, yes let me just grab my purse”

They both got in JJ’s car, the park was a little too far for them to have the time to walk there.

As they were walking down the park, drinking coffee and holding hands, Emily couldn’t stop laughing at that cliché, it was the kind of “ideal” date she would describe on a Tinder bio. But it was nice, and that’s exactly what she needed. It was one of the last sunny day they were gonna have before several months, the weather in DC isn’t ideal during the winter if you like sunny warm days. Or even just sunny days. So they had to enjoy it while it lasted. They didn’t have to think about anything else, they were both enjoying the sun and the sweet taste of caffeine.

But she got interrupted in her reflexion by the -not sweet- sound of her phone ringing. A few seconds later, JJ’s phone was also ringing. They looked at each other, knowing exactly what it meant. 

“It was too good to be true” shrugged JJ, before answering “Jareau”

“Prentiss”

“I’ll be right there”

“I’m on my way”. 

They both went back to JJ’s car, they didn’t have time to go back at her place to get changed, they had to be at the headquarters at soon as possible. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so that was the first chapter, let me know if you liked it in the comments and kudos are really appreciated, it gives me a lot of motivation to keep writing. 
> 
> i hope you're all safe and healthy, and remember, stay home and read fanfics!
> 
> i'll come back on sunday with the second chapter. 
> 
> Jo (@samludgay on twitter)


	2. serial killers don't take days off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I hope everyone is okay and safe. I'm back with a new chapter. I know my chapters are kinda small, I'm sorry, I'm just afraid of giving too much details that could make my story become boring lmao, so I keep it short. I really hope you'll like it, enjoy!

“So much for a day off, huh?” Said Tara, who was the last one to come to the conference room. The rest of the team was already around the table. Everyone was in their casual clothing, which was unusual. The only one in a suit was Rossi, Matt was convinced he didn’t own any actual casual clothes.

Garcia was ready, remote in hand. “Unfortunately, serial killers don’t take days off” Then she whispered to herself “I’m really gonna need to look at kitten pictures after that”.

She turned on the screen, and gave everyone a copy of the file on paper.

“Buckle up. Megan Williams, she’s seventeen years old.” A picture of a young brunette smiling displayed on the screen, then a picture of her dead body. “She was found this morning by a garbage collector in a dumpster in her hometown, Mount Pleasant, in Oregon. She was shot in the head execution style”.

Emily carefully examined the picture of the dead body and said “there’s no traces of blood around her, she wasn’t kill there, the body was moved post-mortem”

“Yes, and there’s worse. A week ago, Olivia Smith, 16, was also found dead in another dumpster in the same town, also shot in the head execution style, and like Emily said, she was probably moved post-mortem.” A picture of Olivia appeared on the screen, also a brunette.

“Okay we’ll keep debriefing on the plane, wheels up in thirty” said Emily before leaving the room.

All of the team - except for Garcia - grabbed their bags under their desks and headed for the jet. Right before leaving the building, JJ waited for Emily so that they could be alone for a minute.

“So I called Will, he called the babysitter so that he could make it to his appointment, everything’s fine.”

“I’m sorry JJ, I know you were looking forward to see them and talk to them about us”

“It’s okay, I mean, it’s part of the job. Like Garcia said, killers don’t take days off, so we don’t either” JJ shrugged, trying to hide her disappointment.

“Come here” Emily brought her girlfriend in for a hug, they were both alone in the elevator “as soon as we come back, we’ll organise something with them and you’ll be able to introduce me as your girlfriend, okay?”

JJ held on to Emily for a few seconds before saying “thank you em”.

They both got out of the elevator to catch up with the team.

_Human right activist Desmond Tutu once said “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality”_

The plane had taken off, all the members of the team were around the table. Garcia was on their tablets. “So guys, I took a deep dive, and the only thing I found connecting these two girls is the fact that they go to the same high school, but they don’t seem to have any friends in common, they’re not even in the same grade. Megan was a senior and Olivia a junior.”

“Okay, what about their parents?” Asked Matt

“Not that I can see, you’ll have to ask them personally”.

“So they’re both brunettes, the unsub has a type, it’s the only thing that could explain the link between them. They might be surrogate for someone? Maybe someone that rejected the unsub?” Said JJ, thinking aloud.

“Guys, I just found something odd, I can’t believe I missed it. Mount Pleasant is a pretty small town, what are the odds that there was another murder a month ago? Also a girl from this high school, but she’s not a brunette, and she wasn’t shot. She had blonde hair, and she was beaten to death with a piece of wood, and she was found on a bench in a park. Her name was Rose Davis, and she was in the same grade as Megan but they didn’t seem to know each other either.”

“This cannot be a coincidence, three deaths in a month? All girls from the same high school?” Said Tara, looking at the pictures of Rose. “But Rose really is different from the other girls, and she was beaten to death, it was way more violent than the other two”

“And also, you can see that it was definitely overkill, the unsub couldn’t control themselves, they couldn’t stop, it was personal. If you look at her wounds, you can see that she suffered a lot before dying, she felt everything. But then when you look at Megan and Olivia, it looks almost…clean, there’s nothing that could suggest they were tortured or even just hurt before their death, and they shot them in the head, they died immediately, they didn’t even have the time to feel pain” Said Reid.

“Okay it’s my cue, time to back to my binary codes, at least they don’t talk about gross things like that, be safe guys, love you!” And just like that, the technical analyst’s face disappeared from their screens.

“We’re almost there, JJ and Reid, you’ll go talk to Megan’s family, Simmons and Alvez, you’ll go to the crime scene to see if you can find anything interesting, and then you’ll go to the medical examiner when Megan’s autopsy will be done. Lewis and Rossi, you’ll go talk to Olivia’s family, and I’ll go meet the detective in charge of the investigation, sounds good?” Said Emily, looking at everyone.

The whole team nodded in agreement.

They had a few minutes before landing, so JJ went to the back of the plane. She needed to breathe a little. She wasn’t a bad flyer, but sometimes being around everyone in a closed space could give her some anxiety, especially when she was already under stress.

Ever since she had kids, cases like this were harder for her, even though when she was SSA Jareau, she was able to control her emotions and think clearly, when she was just JJ, it was harder. For every single kid that died, her heart broke for their mothers, she couldn’t imagine the pain of losing a child, and she hoped she would never ever experience it.

Emily noticed JJ wasn’t feeling well, so she got off her seat to go check on her.

“You okay?” She put her hand on her arm.

“yeah yeah I’m fine, I just feel a little sick, but don’t worry, once we land, I’m SSA Jareau and I’ll be ready to get to work and catch the bastard that did this”

“Oh, I’m not worried about SSA Jareau. I’m worried about my girlfriend JJ. I know these cases are hard for you, and I don’t want you to close in on yourself like this, you need to talk to someone, or it’s not gonna be healthy, okay?”

“Okay, trust me, I’ll be fine” said JJ, with a small smile before going back to her seat, landing was about to start.

“I trust you”

Emily followed her. She knew she was gonna be okay, but it was hard for her knowing JJ was suffering. Everyone has sensitive subjects, which makes working on a case a little bit harder, and for JJ it was when it involved kids. She wanted to protect her, but she knew she couldn’t. All she could do was be there for her, and be a great team leader to solve the case as quickly as possible and avoid more casualties, so that everyone would go home safe and sound.

“Everyone ready?” She asked.

Everyone nodded. They were ready. JJ left her feelings behind her on the jet, and was ready to start working on the case, without being overwhelmed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading, please leave some kudos/comments, it's always motivating. I'll be back on Wednesday with chapter 3. 
> 
> \- Jo


	3. Knight in Shining Armor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I hope everyone is okay and safe, here's a new chapter, I know it's a little bit short, but I hope you'll like it anyway!!
> 
> (also on monday was my friend Yacintha's birthday so this chapter is dedicated to her)

“I’m happy for you”. Said Spencer, out of the blue. They were in the SUV on their way to talk to Megan’s family. 

“What do you mean?” Asked JJ, still looking at the road. 

“Everyone noticed how much you’ve been smiling lately, I don’t know what’s happening, all I know is that you look happier than you’ve ever been since I’ve know you. And you’re my best friend, I’ve known you for a long time, so that says something. I’m really happy for you”

“Thanks Spence” 

It was true, she was happier. It was hard to hide that. She was with the woman of her dreams, and that’s all that mattered. Just thinking about Emily made her feel butterfly in her stomach, and it was one of the best feelings in the world. She couldn’t help but smile, still looking at the road, because she knew that if, at that moment, she looked at Spencer, she would tell him everything, but out of respect for Emily, she wanted to wait so that they could announce it together.

“When can I meet them?” 

“Soon, I promise” said JJ, while she parked in front of the Williams’ family house.

A few seconds later, JJ realized that her friend had used the neutral pronoun. But she didn’t have time to think about it. They were there. 

Reid was the one to knock at the door. A woman opened the door, she looked like she had been crying for a while, she had puffy and watery eyes. Her brown hair was pulled back in a small bun. She had her arms crossed. You didn’t even need to be a profiler to recognize a woman grieving. 

“My name is doctor Spencer Reid, and this is my colleague special agent Jennifer Jareau, we’re with the FBI and we would like to ask you some questions about your daughter”

“Yes, yes of course come on in” said the woman, moving away from the doorway, inviting them inside. 

In the living room was a man in his forties, and a boy that was probably around ten years old. 

“I’m Elizabeth, this is my husband Gary, and this is our son Danny”

Gary looked at them and waved. “Please sit down, can we get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Water?” He asked. 

“No, we’re fine thank you”

“Hey, Danny why don’t you go play in your room?” Asked Elizabeth. Her son nodded and ran to the stairs. 

Both parents sat down in front of them. JJ looked around her, there was a lot of family pictures, in which everyone seemed happy, even though she knew it was easy to fake happiness for a split second, but the smiles seemed genuine. 

“So your daughter Megan was studying at River Fork High School?”

“Yes, she’s a…” the mom looked down as her husband patted her back “she _was_ a senior there”.

“When was the last time you saw her?”

“Yesterday morning, before she went to school, she didn’t have a lot of classes but we were used to her coming home late sometimes, so we didn’t really worry last night”

“Why is that?”

“She usually hangs out with her friends, and since she gets good grades, we started being a little bit more flexible about her curfew”

“Did she have a boyfriend? A girlfriend?” Asked JJ, while writing on her notepad. 

“No, she used to date this boy” Gary answered, before asking her wife “what was his name?”

“Ben, but it didn’t last long. But it’s a nice boy, and they broke up amicably, he would never do something like that.”

“Maybe an old boyfriend? Or someone she might have rejected?”

“Not that we know of”

“Did something changed these last few weeks in her behaviour? Did she meet someone new? Was she acting differently? Even the smallest thing could help”

“Not really, I mean, she a teenager, one day she’s happy, the next day she doesn’t wanna talk to us, but nothing was new, she was normal, her grades were still excellent, she was a good sister, she was…how could someone do this to her?” Elizabeth started crying again. 

“That’s why we’re here, we want to find out what happened to her” said JJ was a reassuring tone. “Do the names Olivia Smith and Rose Davis mean something to you?”

“They’re the girls that were killed too, right?”

“yes” answered JJ, before showing a picture of the two girls.

“We hadn’t heard about them before the media broke the news, and I don’t think Megan knew them either”

“Did she have any close friends that could know something?” 

“Yes, her best friend Erica, they’ve known each other for their whole lives, to be honest, she probably knows more than us about our daughter’s life”

“It’s normal, teenagers don’t share everything with their parents” said Reid. “thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us, if you remember anything, even just a detail, just call us. We’ll get back to you soon. And again, we’re really sorry for your loss”. 

Gary escorted them to the door. After saying goodbye, JJ and Reid got back in the car to go to the precinct, where Emily and the rest of the team were waiting for them. 

On the ride back, Reid was the one driving and JJ’s phone rang. She had a text from Will. It was a picture of her boys, Henry was dressed as a knight, and Michael was dressed as Superman. “ _The boys wanted to show you their new costumes for the fair next month, and Henry told me that you HAD to send that picture to Emily because apparently she’s the one that told him about the story of the knights of the Round Table, and he decided to get this costume so that she’d be proud of him. He really seem to like her. And Michael said that you had to give her a hug from him. I hope the case isn’t too hard for you._ ”. 

The picture was adorable, they seemed really happy and excited, and the fact that Henry and Michael had thought about Emily…She really thought her heart was about to explode. She forwarded the picture to Emily immediately and said “ _The boys wanted to show you their costumes, Henry wanted to make you proud by dressing as one of the knights of the Round Table and Michael is giving you a hug”_

When Emily read the text and looked at the picture, she almost started crying. She loved those boys. She never imagined her life with children, not after what happened with Doyle and Declan. But then she met Henry and Michael, and everything changed. She wasn’t their mother, but she loved them and would do anything for them. She never thought she would feel like that about kids after Declan. But she just needed to meet the right person. She knew for sure that JJ, Henry and Michael were her future. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it, leave me some comments/kudos if you did :) 
> 
> Stay home, stay safe, and we'll be okay, see you on Saturday or Sunday idk yet!
> 
> \- Jo (@samludgay on twitter)


	4. Model Students

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey i'm back with this fourth chapter, i hope you are all doing great! Once again it's a pretty small chapter i'm sorry i just don't know how to write longer chapters without making it boring haha
> 
> I also made a playlist of the songs i've been listening to while i'm writing, you can check it out on spotify : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ASfgqyj3nwx4a5tGlYaOO?si=z0s__sNURD6lJ5kWE9oOfg

“Lewis, Rossi, what did Olivia’s family say?” Asked Emily

“That Olivia was really sweet, she never had a boyfriend, she had a few close friends, she had good grades, and didn’t seem to hide something from her parents. And the parents are active members of the community and don’t have any known enemies” answered Tara

“Okay, and what about you?” Emily asked, looking at Alvez and Simmons

“Like we said, there was no blood at the crime scene so she wasn’t killed there, she has ligature marks on her wrists and ankles but they’re really light so she wasn’t held captive for more than an hour or two, there is no trace of sexual assault. The ME told us that it was the same thing for Olivia, she wasn’t raped and had light ligature marks. Both of them were killed around 11pm the night they went missing. But Rose didn’t have any of that, are we sure we don’t have two killers on the loose?” Asked Simmons

“We don’t know for sure, killing Rose might have been the trigger, which explains why the MO could have changed after that” said Reid

“I think it’s pretty unlikely that there could be two killers, I agree with Reid” said JJ

“Me too, but let’s not rule out this possibility, okay?” Said Emily. “Are we ready to give a preliminary profile?”

Everyone agreed. A few minutes later, they were facing all of the city’s police officer. JJ started speaking loudly so that everyone would pay attention. 

“We believe he’s a male caucasian, late thirties early forties. He could be a figure of authority, all of the victims were from River Fork High School, he’s someone the victims knew and trusted, which is why they don’t have any defensive wounds. They trusted him enough to maybe get in his car, or follow him somewhere. He probably owns a pickup truck or a van, something big enough to move a body easily.” 

After giving the profile, Emily sent JJ and Tara to the high school to question the victim’s friends and some teachers. 

After parking in the school’s parking lot, they met with the guidance counselor first. He was around thirty years old and seemed to care a lot about his student. His face was marked by grief and concern. 

“Did you know Megan, Olivia and Rose well?” Asked Tara, sitting in front of him in his office. 

“Not really, they were all model students so I never really had a real conversation with them, they didn’t seem to have problems, or at least they weren’t willing to talk about them. They don’t have any written warning from any of their teachers and they all had excellent grades. They were the kind of students every high school dreams of having.”

“Anything suspect happened these last few months? Were any teachers maybe fired? Or got a warning of some sort? Inappropriate behaviour?”

“No, or at least not that I know of?”

“Okay thank you, would you mind bringing these students so that we can talk to them?”

“Of course, anything to help you get that son of a bitch and protect my students” 

JJ gave him a list of the victim’s friends. The guidance counselor lead them to an empty classroom so that they could have some privacy. 

The first person they met was Chloe, one of Olivia’s friends. Chloe told them that Olivia was adorable, she wasn’t really interested in boys, she was concentrating on school so that she could get to a good college and make her parents proud. She was a cheerleader, and had lots of friends, everyone liked her. The two girls were really close, and Chloe claimed that Olivia would have never hidden something from her, they told each other everything. 

The second person they met was Erica, Megan’s best friend. They had known each other their whole life. It was hard for the two agents to get anything from her, she was heart broken. But after a while, she finally opened up. She told them that she didn’t have a boyfriend, and that Ben was really sweet with her, even though they weren’t together anymore. But other than that, Megan was very popular, and a lot of boys had crushes on her, but she never hurt any of them, she was really caring and was always tried to protect their feelings. 

Then they talked a little bit with Megan’s other friend, Lucy. They didn’t know each other really well because Lucy moved in Mount Pleasant only a year ago. But she said the same thing all of her friends said, she was really kind and liked by everyone. She also said that sometimes Megan would confide in her instead of Erica because she didn’t want to be judged. 

“What did she tell you?” Asked JJ

“Well, she didn’t have a boyfriend, but she hooked up with a couple of guys, and she didn’t want to tell Erica because she was scared of being called a slut, even though I told her Erica would never say that.”

“Do you know who these guys are?”

“She never told me but..” Lucy stopped immediately. 

“Lucy, if you know something, you need to tell us, even if it’s something small, it could really help catch the person that did that to her”

“She mentioned sometimes that she was into older men, but it was only when we were talking about actors..And once she told me about this math teacher, I only saw him a couple of times, he doesn’t teaches our grade. But she told me he used to sleep with students…”

JJ and Tara looked at each other, Tara could see pure rage in JJ’s eyes, which was understandable considering her history with her sister. 

“Do you know this teacher’s name?”

“It’s Mr Walter I think”

“Okay thank you Lucy, we’ll get back to you if we have any questions”.

The young girl got up from her chair to go back to class. 

“We need to talk to the guidance counselor again” said Tara as they left the room. 

They entered his office and JJ asked immediately “Do you know if the math teacher Mr Walter is here today?”

“He’s not, he called in sick today, why? Is this about the rumors? Because he was cleared three years ago, it wasn’t true and it almost destroyed his old career”

“Okay Tara let’s go, we need to tell the team”. JJ and Tara left the office in a hurry. 

As they got in the car, JJ called Emily. 

“Prentiss”

“Hey, it’s me, we interviewed a few students and apparently there’s a teacher that was accused of sleeping with students three years ago, and he called in sick today. One of Megan’s friends told us she thinks something could have happened between them.” 

“Okay, call Garcia and tell her to check out that guy, come back to the precinct and we’ll try to get a warrant”. 

JJ hung up to call the technical analyst.

“Hey blondie, Garcia speaking”

“Hey Garcia, could you look up a “Mr Walter”? He’s a math teacher at River Fork High School and might have something to do with the murders”

“Okay I will, I’ll call you back once I get something” Garcia hung up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go! I hope you'll like it, leave me some kudos/comments if you did!  
> I'll probably post chapter 5 on tuesday!  
> Have a good day/night, and stay safe xx
> 
> Jo (@samludgay on twitter)


	5. Bye, Love U

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I hope you're doing okay, I'm back with a new chapter. I just want to say that i don't have any knowledge of the US justice system, the only system i know is the french one, and it's completely different (for example, warrants don't exist), so i'm sorry if there are any mistakes. 
> 
> Enjoy!

The whole team was around the table in the conference room when Garcia’s face appeared on the computer. 

“So! I did a little digging and the teacher you were talking about is named Dennis Walter, he’s forty-five, he’s been a math teacher in this high school for fifteen years, and three years ago one of his student, who was a junior at the time, Brittany Smith, accused him of sexual harassment, apparently he told her he would give her a good grade if she slept with him, and when she said no, he made her fail his class. But a few months later the charges were dropped, she said she lied because she was mad about failing his class.”

“Do you think her family got paid to drop the charges? It’s pretty common in cases like that” asked Tara. 

“Possibly, I checked his bank statements and he made a check for 5000 dollars two days before the charges were dropped”

“That can’t be a coincidence, Garcia did you find something else?”

“Yes, that’s where it becomes interesting, he owns a black 2019 Nissan Frontier and a gun that matches the bullets. Megan was in his class last year and Olivia was in his this year”

“What about Rose?”

“Wait a minute…No, she was never in his class but he filled in for one of her teachers that was sick last year, so technically she had him as a teacher for a month”

“That’s enough for a warrant, right?” Asked Reid

“Definitely, I’m gonna call the judge and we’ll go to his house” said Emily and left the room.

“His address is on your phones already” said Garcia before hanging up. 

After a few minutes, Emily was back. “We need to wait another twenty minutes before we get the warrant”

“Can’t we go anyway?” Asked Simmons

“Usually I’d say yes, but since what happened with Barnes, we can’t make another mistake, we need to play by the rules. Everyone get ready, and as soon as the judge calls me back we’re leaving” Emily answered. 

Emily spotted JJ walking towards the toilets. Everyone was busy getting ready, so she decided to join her. 

JJ was leaning against the sink, looking at herself in the mirror. When Emily opened the door she jumped. 

“Are you okay?” Asked Emily, worried. 

“Don’t worry about me” She didn’t turned around, she kept starring at her own reflection. 

“You didn’t answer my question” said Emily, seriously. “You don’t have to come with us, you know that, right?”

“I know, but I swear I’m okay, I just can’t help but think about Howard, about what he did”

Emily looked outside the door, making sure no one was coming, and hugged her girlfriend, resting her head on her shoulder, and looked at her through the mirror. She didn’t say a word, she didn’t know what to say. JJ closed her eyes and whispered “thank you”. 

Emily pressed her lips on JJ’s cheek before pulling away. “We should hear from the judge any minute now, you and Reid should stay here and see with Garcia if you can come up with something else that could help with the investigation, and I’ll take the rest of the team at Walter’s place, okay? You’re gonna be more helpful trying to find something here with Reid than on the field.”

“Okay, I’ll call Garcia immediately” JJ was about to leave the room when Emily grabbed her arm, pulling her in for a gentle kiss. It wasn’t really professional, but they were way past that, and they both needed it. They got interrupted by Emily’s phone ringing. She picked up in a hurry, and got out of the bathroom. JJ only heard “Yes your honor”, and understood it was the judge, probably giving them the warrant. She waited a few seconds and followed her out.

Everyone was ready to leave, they had their bulletproof vests on, and left for their car as soon as Emily told them they had the warrant. 

JJ joined Reid in the conference room, he was already in a conversation with Garcia. 

“Did you find anything else?” Asked the profiler. 

“Not yet” answered Garcia “I took a look at the parent’s bank accounts, to see if they may have been involved in something that could cause them problems. But there was no such thing, I mean, Rose’s dad probably has a gambling problem, he lost some money because of online poker, but not enough to get in trouble. Megan’s parents are clean, and Olivia’s mom has a serious addiction to online shopping, but in her defence, she’s a doctor and has a lot of money”

“Okay so money is not a problem for them” said JJ “did you look at the victim’s bank accounts if they had one? Maybe Walter assaulted them, and he gave them money to silence them, but it didn’t work so he killed them?”

“All of them had bank accounts but there were no large amount of money transferred to their accounts”

“What about small amounts, but regularly, maybe once a week? It’s something we could have missed easily.”

“No, Rose only had money from her job at the local store, and concerning Olivia and Megan, the only money they had was given by their parents and family” said Garcia. 

“So he didn’t pay them, or if he did it was with cash, and there’s no way for us to find out if they already spent it…” said JJ

“Do you think it could be someone else?” Asked Reid

“We can’t rule out that possibility yet, so yeah, it could be someone else” answered JJ. “Garcia, is there a lot of sexual predators in the area? Or people with a record of any assault?”

“There’s a few, 14 to be exact, except that 7 of them have been out of town for at least one of the murders and only two of the ones that were here are white men in their late thirties”

“Okay send me their names and addresses” asked JJ

“Already done my loves”

“Thanks Garcia”. 

JJ’s phone rang, it was Emily. She picked up “You’re one speaker Em”

“Okay, we’ve arrested Dennis Walter, we’re on our way to the precinct. We looked at his house, there’s no evidence of any of the girls being there but he could have killed them somewhere else, and his gun was fired recently. And even though he called in sick today, he doesn’t seem really sick”

“Okay, he could be our guy, I still asked Garcia if there were any other sexual predators or people with a record of assault in the area and to people fit our profile, we have their names and addresses, we should looked them up just in case, see if they have an alibi”

“Okay send the adresses to Rossi and Lewis, they haven’t left yet so they can go talk to them”

“Okay I’m sending them right now”

“We’re here in five minutes, bye”

“Bye, love you” JJ froze immediately, she couldn’t believe she had just said that. This had become an automatism. She didn’t even think. Fortunately, Spencer had left to go grab some coffee or to the bathroom, she didn’t know, but the point was that he wasn’t in the room. Hopefully, Emily wasn’t the one driving and she wasn’t using the speakerphone? 

Only Penelope had heard that, but she didn’t say anything, pretending she hadn’t heard that. But she did. Clearly. And she knew they weren’t the kind of friends that said things like that during work hours, it wasn’t like her and Morgan and their “babygirl” and “talk dirty to me”. She promised herself to talk to JJ about it once the case closed.

JJ’s face was burning, all she wanted was to disappear.

On the other end of the line, Emily was chuckling, of course she wasn’t on speakerphone, Alvez was the one driving and Simmons was next to the unsub. No one had heard what JJ said. She hung up as they were getting close to the precinct. 

Five minutes later, Alvez and Simmons were bringing Mr Walter to the interrogation room. Emily looked for her girlfriend. She found her alone next to the coffee machine. 

“Hey you”

“Em I’m so sorry I just- I don’t know why I said that”

“Don’t worry, no one heard on my side, what about you?”

“Reid wasn’t in the room, and I think Garcia was too busy and did pay attention to what I was saying”

“We really need to tell the team once all of this is over, if they don’t find out by then” Emily winked at her. 

“We really do” answered her girlfriend “okay let’s go, are Simmons and Alvez leading the interrogation?”

They both joined Reid in the room behind the one-way mirror.

After more than two hours of questioning, the teacher didn’t break, he didn’t say a thing that could incriminate him. He kept saying that he never touched those girls, and only saw them in class, that he could never be capable of doing such a horrible thing. He said he liked his students, and that he just wanted them to succeed, and that the charges against him were dropped because the girl lied. Alvez and Simmons tried different approaches to make him talk, then Emily, Reid and JJ all tried but came out empty. 

Tara and Rossi came back, both of the other potential unsubs had rock solid alibis. 

It was now past midnight and they were all exhausted. 

“Listen guys, we’re all tired, we need to get some rest or we’re not gonna be able to function properly. We have six rooms booked at the hotel across the street, they didn’t have enough rooms for all of us so some of us are gonna have to share”. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it, if you did leave some kudos/comments :)  
> I'll post chapter 6 on friday or saturday, it depends on how busy i am with my exams that are coming up. 
> 
> Stay home, stay safe <3
> 
> \- Jo (@samludgay on twitter)


	6. April

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! I'm back with chapter 6, i hope you're doing okay. Enjoy!

They all decided that Rossi, Tara and Reid could have their own rooms and that Emily and JJ, and Matt and Luke would pair up. It wasn’t odd for the team that JJ and Emily to share a room, they always paired up since before they were together, so it made sense. 

They all checked in at the hotel, and took their bags to their rooms. Emily opened the door and was followed by JJ who closed the door behind her. 

“I’m exhausted” 

“Fuck” said Emily, stopping. 

“Bad word” JJ couldn’t help but correct her every time Emily sweared, it was a force of habit. “What?” She asked while raising one eyebrow. 

“There’s only one bed…We’re gonna have to share, I can’t believe it.” 

JJ’s first reaction was a quizzical look, it took her a few seconds to realize the brunette was actually kidding and decided to go along with her. 

“Ugh, that’s the worst.”

“I know, right? I should go to back to the reception and ask for twin beds” Emily pretended to leave the room but JJ grabbed her arm. 

“Please don’t, I don’t mind sharing the bed with my girlfriend” she smiled before bringing her closer to kiss her. “As long as you accept to share the blanket because I’m freezing”. 

“I can be okay with that” said Emily, before kissing her again. 

“You promise?”

“I promise” she answered. 

JJ stepped back to go to the bathroom to put on her pajamas while Emily made herbal tea for the both of them. 

Ten minutes later, they were both in bed, cuddling. That’s all they needed after that hard day. 

“We really need to get some sleep, we have to wake up in four hours…” whispered Emily, before noticing her girlfriend’s steady breath, she was already sound asleep. It amazed her every time how quickly she could call asleep. She didn’t want to move, the last thing she wanted was to wake her up. She couldn’t help but contemplate, she loved watching her sleep, the way all of her muscles were relaxed, it was at times like these that all she could feel the unconditional love she had for her. Without even realizing it, she felt asleep while holding the love of her life, not wanting to let her go. She needed to know she was there.

The sound of a phone ringing woke them up. Emily groaned and asked “what time is it?”

JJ who was still half asleep, looked at her phone “almost 7”. 

Emily opened her eyes, it was her phone. “My head is killing me” she picked up the phone and said “Prentiss”. 

“Hi, agent Prentiss, there’s been another murder, we need you at the scene immediately, it’s behind the high school.”

“We’ll be right there”. 

Emily got up “They found another body, we need to go”. 

“Fuck” 

They both put their clothes on before going door to door to wake up the other members of the team. When they arrived at the crime scene, the ME and ten other police officers were already there. The chief waiting for them. 

“It’s April Barnett, she’s fifteen, and she’s a sophomore here, she’s a brunette. We need to hurry before the students show up to school, we don’t want them to witness that”

“Still the same MO?” Asked Emily, while walking towards the body. 

“Yes, shot in the head, no blood, just like the others. She never came home last night, but her parents only noticed it this morning when they woke up and she wasn’t in her room. They’re at the precinct right now. Apparently she was on a date with her boyfriend last night, he’s on his way so that you can ask him some questions. He also has an alibi for last night, he came home before the time of death”

“I guess that means Walter isn’t our unsub after all… Did you find anything else on the crime scene that could help?”

“Nothing, the unsub didn’t leave anything on the scene, he was really thorough, no finger prints, no hair, nothing.”

“Okay, you can tell the ME to bring back the body to the morgue, it’s almost 7:30, the students are gonna start showing up” said Emily. “Let’s go back to the station, Tara and JJ you’ll talk to the boyfriend, he’ll be more likely to talk to you. Rossi and I will talk to the parents. Reid, Simmons and Alvez, call Garcia and try to find out things about April, try to find out if she’s connected to the other victims in any way.” 

The team got back to the SUVs and went back to the station. An officer led Tara and JJ to the room where April’s boyfriend was waiting. They opened the door and sat in front of him. He didn’t even look at them, he had put his head in his hand and was sobbing. Seeing a young boy like that made JJ’s mom heart ache. 

“Hi, my name is Jennifer, and this is Tara, can we ask you a few questions?”

The young boy lifted his head and tried to dry her tears that were still running down his cheeks. 

“Yes, of course”

“You’re Kyle, right?”

Kyle nodded

“How long have you been dating April?”

“We…We used to be best friend since fifth grade, and we started dating a year ago, I know it’s stupid, we’re only fifteen, but I truly feel like she was the one I wanted to get old with” 

“This isn’t stupid, you were in love.” Said Tara, with a soft voice. The two women didn’t want to pressure him, dealing with a loss like that was hard enough for just a teenager, especially if he was in love with her. “What happened last night?”

“We went to see a movie, she loved old movies, and there was a screening of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” at the movie theatre downtown, so I bought us tickets. She was obsessed with that movie, I used to make fun of her all the time for this, even though I secretly really like that movie too. I never told her, and now…I’ll never get the chance to tell her.”

“You know Kyle, sometimes girls have this sixth sense, it’s kind of a superpower, she probably knew that, especially because she’s known you for a long time” said JJ “What happened after?” 

“We went to a fast food to eat something because she was hungry, and then we went home, I don’t have my driver’s license yet, so I couldn’t drive her home. We live nearby, I wanted to walk her home, but she insisted she was gonna be fine, we were just one block away, so we said goodbye and I went home. I should have insisted, I should have walked her home, if hadn’t been that stupid she would probably still alive…I should have-“

Tara stopped him “Don’t do that, none of you could have predicted this was gonna happen, she didn’t die because of you, she died because of the person that did that to her, not because of you. Don’t blame yourself, guilt is gonna destroy you from the inside, that’s not healthy. You’re fifteen, you’re not responsible for that, you did everything you could.”

He started crying again, burying his head in his hands again. 

“Did April tell you anything strange? Maybe she noticed someone following her? Did she meet anyone new? Did she do something?”

“No…I don’t think so, nothing happened, nothing that could have gotten her…you know”. 

The two women decided that the boy had been through enough, they stopped asking him questions and gave them their cards and said to call them if he remembered anything else. 

Everyone gathered around the table in the conference room. Tara and JJ shared what Kyle had told them, and Emily and Rossi did the same for April’s parents. “They told us that she was a good student, she had a lot of friends but everyone liked her, she was kind, and nothing odd, out of the ordinary, happened before her death, just like the other victims.” 

“So Dennis Walter can’t be our unsub, we’re right back to square one again.” Said Matt, looking at the files in front of him, hoping to find something they had missed. 

Reid was contemplating the board with all of the pictures and the places the bodies were found. Except for Rose, they were all found in different dumpsters. He circled everything, and revealed a section of the town, that was probably the unsub’s comfort zone, and probably where he lived. But it was still too large, and they needed more than that to find another suspect. 

“Did the ME finished the autopsy?” Asked JJ “Maybe he found something”

“He should call any minute now” said Emily, staring at her phone, like if, by doing that, it would magically start ringing. And it did, which made Emily jump. 

“Prentiss…Okay…Thank you, we’ll be waiting” She hang up a few seconds later. 

Everyone was staring at her, eager to find out what he said. “Apparently he found something that could help, he’s sending us the results right now”. 

The computer lit up and the results appeared on the screen. Reid took a look at it, reading every word of the rapport in just a few seconds. Every time he did that, the team could help but be amazed by his incredible brain. 

“It was a woman” he said, still looking at the screen. 

“What do you mean?” Asked Emily, frowning. 

“Apparently April tried to defend herself, the ME found skin residue under her finger nails, our unsub is female, it’s not a man, it’s a woman, our profile was wrong”

“We need to work on a new profile right now”. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's it for today, i'll probably post the next chapter on monday or tuesday, i don't know yet, i have to study for my exams so i don't really have a lot of time to write, but i'll do my best!   
> Leave some kudos/comments if you liked it!  
> Stay home, stay safe xx
> 
> \- Jo (@samludgay on twitter)


	7. Regina George

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey i'm back with chapter 7! I hope everyone's okay. I hope you'll like it, enjoy!

The whole team was back in the conference room. 

“Garcia, could you do another deep dive for the four victims, and focus mostly on their social medias? And the image they give to the world that maybe their parents don’t know about?”

“I’m on it” Garcia started typing fast, her eyes looking at four different screen, one for each victims “I’m looking at their facebook profiles, twitter accounts, instagrams, there are also some yearbook pictures and pictures of them in the local newspaper…”

She sent them some exemples of posts on facebook and yearbook pictures. “Don’t you guys get a Regina George vibe?” She asked. 

“They don’t seem to be sprinters…” wondered Reid

“Wait what?” Asked JJ, looking at the young doctor, confused. 

“Regina George, the American-born Nigerian sprinter, she specializes in the 400 metres, she represented Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Olympics, she was the silver medallist at the African Championships in 2012…I don’t see what she could have in common with these victims” 

“How do you know all that?” Asked Matt, in shock. 

“I can be into sports you know?”

“Stil??”

Penelope sighed “Oh my sweet sweet naïve baby genius, I’m talking about Regina George from the amazing, life-changing, best movie in the whole world named Mean Girls and written by the queen that is Mrs Tina Fey. Regina was the popular girl slash bully in her high school.” 

“Oh” 

“Yeah “oh”, I can’t believe you haven’t seen that movie Spencer, just know that when you come back it is my duty to make you watch that masterpiece. Anyway, as you can see they were all really popular, even though they seemed liked by everyone, I’m pretty sure that people were intimidated by them. They might even have been bullies at some points, but you know, not the violent kind, they’d be the kind of mean girls that comments on your outfit with a fake smile, the kind that makes a few mean remarks occasionally. Most people don’t even realize it, they think they’re just kidding or something.”

“Yeah, I know this kind of bullies, no one notices it, except for some people that receive some mean comments regularly, and since they’re popular and everyone wants to be friends with them, they almost never get complains. They have an army of friends that are ready to defend them and make the person that report them’s life a living hell. So I doubt there’s gonna be any traces of complaints, but could you still look at it Garcia?” Asked Tara. 

“Doing this right now….and no, no one complained, you were right.”

“Usually, this kind of people also get bullied by other people, guys that are friends with the mean girls, could you get a list of the people that reported someone else for bullying?”

“Will do, I’ll call you back” Garcia hung up. 

“We were completely wrong in our profile. It’s a woman, and she’s probably also a student, that was most likely bullied by these girls.” Said Emily, visibly mad at herself, how could she had never considered that possibility? She had been a profiler for more than fifteen years, she had enough experience to be rarely wrong about this kind of things. 

“This type of unsubs usually acts alone, she had to carry the bodies and drove a truck, so she must have been old enough to drive and strong enough to carry the bodies on her own. She can’t be younger than sixteen, she’s probably a senior.” Said Luke. 

Garcia’s face re-appeared on their screens “I have a list, there’s only three female students that reported bullying.” 

“I don’t know why but I wished there were more, because there’s without a doubt way more victims of bullying in a high school, they just don’t trust enough the school system to talk about it, it’s still a taboo, something they’re ashamed of, and that’s what provokes most of the school shootings.” Matt was visibly mad. 

“Are theses girls older than sixteen?”

“No, two of them are freshman, and the third one is a sophomore”

“Do they appear strong and tall?”

“Absolutely not, they’re still babies and it makes me want to hug them and tell them that it gets better.” Garcia was, like the rest of the team, affected by this, no one likes to know that kids go through something like that. 

“Fuck” Emily stormed out, she had to breathe some fresh air or she was gonna faint. 

JJ went after her immediately. She knew the brunette blamed herself. “Emily”

Emily was standing in front of the precinct, trying to calm down. “I’m okay JJ, you can go back inside”

“I’m not leaving you here. Remember what you told me on the plane? You can’t bottle up your emotions, it’s not healthy.” 

“How could I be so wrong?”

“You can’t blame yourself, you know that”

“Yes I can JJ, I’m the one that suggested that profile, and because of me we wasted time looking for someone that didn’t exist. And because of that, April was killed.”

“Emily, do you remember what you say to us every single time we feel guilty like that?”

“It’s different”

“It’s absolutely not. I wanna hear you say it Emily”

“I can’t”

“Emily I wanna hear you say it, because right now, we need you, you’re the leader, you’re one of the best profiler I know, and we need your help to arrest that person. So, let me ask you again, what does Emily Prentiss say to us every time we feel guilty about something like that?” JJ looked at her with a piercing look, more serious than ever. 

Emily took a deep breath “I tell you that it’s not your fault, the only responsible for that death is the person who did this, I tell you that you’re human and that you did your best, and that you need to keep doing that to protect everyone else.”

“Exactly, that’s what you need to keep saying to yourself until you believe it because, Emily, this is not your fault, I promise.” Said JJ before putting her arms around her to try and calm her down. 

“Thank you JJ”

“Anytime my love”. 

“We need to go back”

“Let’s go” 

They went back to the conference room. No one said anything about the fact that Emily stormed out. 

“Okay, so it’s what we know it that it’s a girl, she’s at least sixteen, and the strength to carry a body without difficulties, which means she’s probably tall and has a lot of muscle, she had a driver’s licence and her or her parents own a truck or a van. Garcia, is there any student that could fit the profile?”

Garcia started typing on her keyboard, and a single person appeared “Yes, there’s one, her name is Lucy Hansen, she’s nineteen but she’s still a senior…”

“We interviewed her yesterday” said Tara, looking at JJ. 

“She definitely has enough strength to carry a body” said JJ, remembering the body type of the student. 

“Oh my god…She moved here with her dad last year from Boston after her twin sister died… She killed herself. And the anniversary of her death was the day Rose Davis was killed”

Emily saw that, for a second, JJ froze. Suicide was always a trigger for her, especially these last few months, since the tall man case, she kept having nightmares, and the image of her sister in the bathtub was stuck in her mind. 

“It can’t be a coincidence” 

“What can you tell us about her sister?” Asked Reid

“Her name was Amy, she seemed really close to Lucy, their mom died of cancer when they were three and their dad had two jobs to support them and pay the medical bills, they basically raised themselves. And…Lucy wasn’t the one getting bullied, it was Amy. She was bullied by..guys…her name was Rose Turner ” Garcia sent the picture to the team. 

“Rose, just like Rose Davis, and she’s a brunette, just like Megan, Olivia and April”

“Yes, and the day before Amy died, she was assaulted by Rose when on her way back to school, it was dark and they were alone, no one helped her.”

“We have the motive, she saw her sister’s bully in all of the girls she killed.” Said Emily. 

“Does her dad owns a truck?”

“Yes, and they have a wood shack at the back of their garden”

“Perfect place to kill them” said Matt

“We need to act fast, it’s almost after dusk, she might try and kill someone else” said Luke

The team was interrupted by a police officer “A girl has been reported missing, she was supposed to be home an hour ago, she isn’t answering her phone, and her mom insists that she had never been late and always has her phone with her. Her name is Piper Jenkins, she’s a brunette and apparently she’s a part of the mean girls. She’s 16”. 

“Garcia can you send us the address?” asked Tara

“She lives with her dad at 27 North Shore Drive” 

“Okay thanks Garcia, let’s go” said Emily. 

They all took their vests and guns, ready to leave. As they were walking to their cars, she could see JJ was trying to stay calm, but she was struggling. 

“What can I do JJ?” Emily asked

“Nothing, I can’t freeze, I don’t have a choice, not when someone’s in danger, we need to save Piper and stop Lucy”

“Are you gonna be okay?”

“I promise”. JJ smiled softly at Emily. She was telling the truth. No matter how much the case was affecting her, she would never put someone else’s life in danger because of her own feelings. Her courage, the fact that she would always do everything she could to help people, that was one of the things that made Emily fall in love with her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's it for today, i'll be back on thursday probably, i haven't been studying a lot for my exams hahaha, it's hard to find motivation right now) so i have enough time to write. If you liked it, please leave some kudos/comments, it's always great to know if people actually like what i write!   
> and by the way, this fic is "almost" over, there are only 4 chapters left, and i already have ideas for another fanfic so as soon as this one is over i'll start posting another one :)
> 
> Love u, 
> 
> \- Jo (@samludgay on twitter)


	8. The Sister Bond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm back with chapter 8, i hope everyone is doing okay. 
> 
> my stupid ass posted the same chapter twice sorry fkdjfkj here's the real one

“FBI” Luke yelled before opening the door that was left opened. They were in front of Lucy’s house. 

The first thing they all smelled was alcohol. The house was a mess, bottles everywhere, it was dark. They could hear the sound of the TV coming from the living room. After checking every other rooms, they arrived in the living room. An old man was sitting on a chair, watching TV with a bottle of vodka in his hands. 

“FBI” repeated Luke “let me see your hands”. 

The man jumped, he hadn’t heard them, he dropped the bottle and raised both of his hands “what’s- what’s going on?”

“Are you Robert Hansen?” Asked JJ

“Yes it’s me, could anyone tell me what’s going on?”

“Is your daughter here? Lucy?”

“No, she said she had something to do, she- she said she’d be back in a few hours”

“Do you have any idea where she could have gone?”

“No..Why? What happened? Is she in danger?”

“We don’t know yet sir, but we need to find her” answered Emily. 

Tara was already on the phone with Garcia, trying to track down Lucy. “okay…okay thanks Garcia” She hung up and said “Guys, she’s at the school, the alarms just got deactivated and the video camera shows her going into the school with a girl that looks like Piper.”

The whole team went back to their SUVs and drove to the school as fast as they could. Ten minutes later, they were all in front of the school, ready to go in. The SWAT team was on its way but they didn’t have time to wait for them, they had to act now. 

“Guys, remember that Lucy lost the most important person in her life, she won’t hesitate taking her own, and taking Piper’s life too. So be careful, okay? Let’s try to bring them both back alive.” Said Emily before they split. 

They searched the whole school but they were nowhere to be found. Their phones rang, it was Garcia “they’re on the roof, they’re on the roof” she almost yelled. JJ and Tara were the closest ones. They took the stairs and found a small door that gave access to the roof. They tried to make the least noise possible but Lucy heard them anyway. She turned around to face them, she was holding Piper close to her with the gun next to her head. 

“Don’t come any closer or I’ll kill her” She was yelling. 

Tara and JJ obeyed. “Lucy, do you remember us? I’m Jennifer and this is Tara, we met yesterday.”

“Yeah, you were asking about Megan. She got what she deserved. She shouldn’t have hurt all of these people, she was a bad person, she was a bad person” Lucy was crying. 

JJ could sense she was about to do something, she wasn’t sure what, but she knew she had to act fast. She put down her gun, showing both of her hands. 

“Lucy, I know about Amy, I know what happened, I know how you feel”

“No you don’t, I knew she was being bullied, and I didn’t say anything, I just let it happen.”

“You didn’t, you were young, you didn’t realize how serious it was, it wasn’t your fault”

“I was sick” 

JJ looked at her, trying to figure out was she was saying. 

“That day, we always came home from school together, but I was sick, so she was alone. You know I was the one that found her? It was my fault, I should have been a better sister. If I had protected her, she would have been here and none of this would have happened”

“You’re hurting, and I get that, losing a sister.” JJ could see that Lucy was getting more and more nervous “Lucy, listen to me. I had a big sister, Roslyn, she was my best friend, she was there for me when I needed her. But then something really bad happened to her, and I didn’t know, so I couldn’t help her, and the only way out she could see was the same as your sister. She killed herself when I was eleven. And I was the one that found her the next morning. So I might not know how you feel, but I can understand. I know that pain, the one that eats you from the inside, the one that makes you blind. The rage inside of you, the one you can’t control, I get it.”

“I should have been there for her, I should have helped her, that’s what sisters are for, and I failed and now I’m alone”

“Lucy you’re not alone, your dad is waiting for you, he’s worried”

Lucy started laughing “My dad? He loves his bottle of vodka more than me, he doesn’t even know I exist.”

“And your sister will always be a part of you, no matter what happens, you went through a lot together, she’s in your blood, she’s in your heart, she lives in the memories you have of the both of you, she’s here Lucy, and she wouldn’t want you to do this.”

“You’re right, she wouldn’t agree with what I’m doing, but she always have been the better sister, she was kind, nice, sweet, she forgave everything and everyone, she helped as many people as she could, she was kind and that’s what got her killed. Rose manipulated her, she used her, she destroyed her. My sister died because she was a good person. I don’t want to be a good person anymore, I just want to protect of the Amys out there.”

“I know you do, I know that deep down, but killing all of these young girls won’t bring back Amy, and it won’t protect anyone. That’s not how you can end bullying. I’m really sorry about what happened to you and your sister, I really am. But you need to put the gun down. Killing Piper won’t do any good. She’s someone’s sister. Deep down she’s a good person, just like Amy. Just put the gun down Lucy. Please”. JJ stopped talking. She had said everything she had to say. 

Lucy started crying again, and slowly put the gun down and let Piper go. She ran into Tara’s arms, looking for some protection, while JJ grabbed Lucy’s gun before putting her in handcuffs. But she tried to be gentle, there was no reason to use violence, like a lot of police officers do. Lucy had surrendered, she wasn’t a threat. 

Before JJ handed Lucy to the police officers, the young girl turned around and told her “I don’t want what happened to Amy to happened to anyone else.”

“Then fight, just not the way you’ve been fighting until now. Fight to raise awareness, it’s the only thing that can actually do something, it can prevent bullying. If you really want to, you’ll find a way to fight this battle, I’m sure of it”

“I’m sorry Jennifer.”

JJ turned around while Lucy got in the car. She could see into the distance Piper’s mom holding her daughter in her arms, both of them were crying. The SWAT team was leaving, almost all of the police officers were gone. Only the BAU was left. They were all talking next to the SUVs, while JJ was remaining on the outside. She didn’t even see Emily walk up to her, but she felt the warmth of the hug she gave her. She didn’t say anything, didn’t ask any questions, she just hugged her, letting her know that she was here for her, she wasn’t alone. 

After a few minutes, they went back to the team. “Let’s go back to the precinct and grab our stuff from the hotel, and let’s go home, okay?” 

Everyone smiled, happy that the case was closed, and that, even though four people had died, they had saved someone, and arrested the person responsible, without any more casualties. But even when the cases ended well, it felt bittersweet, but it was part of the job. They would spend their whole life seeing the bad side of humanity. But they would also try to make things a little bit better, that was why they were ready to do this. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! I'll post chapter 9 on sunday (or saturday), i'm still not really studying for my exams which means i have time to write hahah  
> If you liked it leave some kudos/comments, it's always nice :)
> 
> Stay safe,
> 
> \- Jo (@samludgay on twitter)


	9. she would have loved you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back (don't worry, i checked twice before posting, this is the right chapter this time), i hope you guys are doing okay!

“C’mon! Why do I even bother playing against you” complained Matt after losing, once again, against Reid. 

“Now you get why we call him the chess master?” Asked Tara, laughing. 

“It’s just luck” Matt was obviously a sore loser. 

“It’s only math and probability theories, it’s simple” Reid shrugged. 

“Easy for you to say, genius” said Rossi, without looking away from his book. 

Emily was looking at them out of the corner of her eye, she knew she was the only one capable of beating Reid’s ass in a chess game. She only played with him once, during her first case, in the plane when it was only her, Reid and Gideon. But if she said anything, Reid would deny it. 

While everyone was debating about Reid’s capacities, JJ was all curled up in her seat, looking out the window, letting her thoughts drift away. She was wringing her hands. Emily looked at her, at first she wanted to leave her alone, but after a while, she couldn’t stand to see her like that. 

“Hey babygirl, whatcha doing here” said Emily, imitating Derek’s voice. 

She always managed to make her smile, that was one of her superpowers. 

“hey” 

“Do you wanna talk?”

“Maybe.”

“I’m listening” She sat down in front of her. 

“I don’t even know what to say I just feel weird…All of this reminded me Roslyn, that’s not a surprise, a teenager killing herself, how can I not think about her? But why does it still hurt so damn much?” 

Emily could tell JJ was trying to hold back her tears. “It’s normal, and unfortunately, I think that in situations like this, remembering your sister’s death will always hurt. But at any other moments, you will remember all of the happy moments you shared with her, every time she gave you advices, every time she defended you, every time she smiled at you, every time she’d laugh at your jokes even though they weren’t funny”

“First of all my jokes are _always_ funny” JJ defended herself. 

“okay, every time she’d laugh at your hilarious jokes. See? Talking about this didn’t hurt, it made you smile. There will always be a part of you that is hurt and traumatized by what happened, but there’s another part that will always remember the love you and your sister shared.”

“Thank you” JJ whispered. 

They looked at each other without saying a word for a few minutes, and Emily decided to break the silence. “I can’t help but feel like there’s something else you’re not telling me”

“I…” 

“I would never ever judge you, you know that? You can tell me anything, I just want to help you”

“Seeing Lucy, talking to her, it made me feel something. Like somehow I could relate to how she was feeling. And not just her grief. I could feel her anger. I felt that same anger. I felt it when Roslyn died, and I felt it again when we arrested Howard. If I had the chance, I would have killed him Emily. I would have killed someone, even if he didn’t have a gun, even if he was begging for his life, I would have killed him in cold blood, and I wouldn’t have felt guilty. And that scares me, it scares me that there is a monster inside of me, and that it could wake up at any time.” JJ couldn’t hold back her tears anymore. 

“But you didn’t kill him. You had something Lucy never got. You had and you will always have people that love you unconditionally. Lucy didn’t have that, the only person that loved her like that died, and that’s what triggered her. You would have killed Howard, and if I was in that same situation, I would have too. But you would never have killed an innocent person just because they looked like Howard, and that’s what proves that this monster you think is inside, doesn’t exist. Am I wrong?”

“No…But still. Lucy did all of those horrible things, she deprived innocent teenagers of their future, and all I could see was someone in pain.”

“She was someone in pain. But she also made bad decisions, hopefully, she’ll be able to get some help from professionals. There’s nothing wrong with you for seeing that JJ.” 

“I fucking hate all of this. I hate it. We can’t we protect our children… Why do bullies always get away with it? Why does this society makes people think that if you get bullied you’re just weak because you don’t stand up for yourself. Why does no one talk about this? We all know what’s happening, and yet we don’t do anything, we don’t protect our children, and it’s because of that that tragedies like this happens. I remember when I was in high school, I saw some people get bullied, but at the time I didn’t know it was that serious, in my mind it was nothing, they were just messing with them. So I didn’t say anything, and maybe now this kid is scarred for life.”

“I hate that too…” Emily looked at JJ, she didn’t really know what to say, except that she felt the same way about it. 

“What if this happened to Henry? What if it _is_ happening to Henry right now? What if he’s too ashamed to tell me about it? What if he keeps all of this to himself? What if Michael becomes a bully? Or what if he’s bullied too?”

“First of all JJ, you’re an amazing mom, and if there’s one thing I know is that you raised them well, you gave them your values, they’re kind, thoughtful, they’re honest and they listen to you. You love them more than anything in this world. They’re good persons. They’re not bullies, and they will never be. And for the other thing, if you feel like they would be too ashamed to talk to you, talk to them about it, tell them that no matter what happens, you’re their mom, and your role is to protect them. And if they know that, they will talk to you, I promise. You’re doing everything you can for your kids.” 

“Thanks em.” Tears were still rolling on her cheek, but a small smile appeared on her face. “I don’t know what I would do without you”. 

“You’d be doing great, with of without me, you’re the strongest person I know” said Emily, smiling too. 

“You know, you’d make a great mom too. To Henry and Michael, and maybe to a third one someday.” JJ whispered so that the others wouldn’t hear it. “I wish she was still here, I wish you could meet her. She would have loved you.”

Emily knew she was talking about her sister “I’m sure I would have loved her too.”. 

What JJ had just said was not insignificant. She had never said that to anyone, except for her children. She had never told Will. 

Emily made her happy, and until the end, all Roslyn worried about was JJ’s well being, that was the reason why she had given her that necklace, so that Howard would never approach her. All she wanted was for her little sister to have a good life, to be happy, and to be true to herself. That’s all she wanted. And somewhat, JJ strongly believed that Roslyn was still here, watching over her, and she was finally happy that someone else worried about JJ as much as her. She was in good hands with Emily. For the rest of her life. 

Right when the plane was about to land, Rossi put down his book. “Ladies and gentlemen? Could I have your attention?”

Everyone looked at him, curious. 

“I am organizing a small gathering in my backyard on Saturday, and everyone is invited. If you have plans, cancel them, because attendance is mandatory. You don’t need to bring everything, except for your most beautiful outfits. Thank you.”

Everyone said they’d come, Rossi’s parties were always the best, they would not miss that for the world. 

_St Ambrose once said “No one heals himself by wounding another”._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was it, there are only two chapters left, I can't wait for you to read them! I'll post chapter 10 on wednesday!
> 
> If you like it, leave some kudos/comments :)
> 
> \- Jo (@samludgay on twitter)


	10. the tree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm back with chapter 10, I'm really excited about this one and about the fact that this story is coming to an end. I really hope you're gonna like it, and i hope everyone is doing okay, enjoy!

It was eight o’clock when Rossi turned on the lights in his garden. Everything was ready for what he had planned with the help of Garcia. 

Her, Reid, Tara and Luke were already there. Matt was on his way with his wife, and Emily and JJ had texted him to say they were gonna be there soon.The rest was on their way. Rossi had made his famous pastas and pizzas, the alcohol was ready. One of the main qualities of Rossi was that he knew how to throw a great party. Everyone was excited, they all needed to release the pressure and have fun. 

Someone knocked at the door, it was Matt and his wife, who had a bottle of red wine in her hand. “Come on in!” Said Rossi, leading them to his garden. Just a few seconds later, Emily and JJ were on his doorstep. 

The whole team was here. Rossi gave everyone a glass of champaign so that he could make a toast. 

“As most of you know, I don’t celebrate my birthday. In fact, it’s the worst day of the year for me. But I’m okay with that, you know why?”

Everyone shook their heads. 

“It’s because I get to celebrate everyone else’s. And today, we’re celebrating you JJ. I knew you weren’t gonna do anything for your birthday, and I wasn’t gonna let that happen. You’re a part of this family, and families celebrate birthdays.”

JJ was genuinely shocked, she had no idea this was gonna happen, and judging by everyone else’s faces, she was the only one that didn’t. 

“You deserve a wonderful birthday agent Jareau, and we’re here to give it to you” Rossi raised his glass “To JJ”

Everyone imitated him “To JJ”. 

“Wow, thanks guys, you really didn’t have to-“

Rossi interrupted the young woman “uh uh uh we had to do it, and we did it”

“Okay, then thank you, really, it means the world to me”. 

Garcia hugged her before saying “it’s because you mean the world to us”. 

It had been more than ten years, but she still couldn’t believe she was lucky enough to have people like them in her life. 

“Who wants to eat?” Asked Rossi, walking towards the big table. 

“Oh my god me, I’m starving” Penelope almost pushed JJ to be the first one at the table. She was Rossi’s number one fan when it came to pasta. Emily wanted to sit next to JJ, but Penelope and Reid had already decided to sit next to the birthday girl. JJ looked at her and mouthed “sorry”.

During the meal, they talked about their lives mostly, they had made a rule a long time ago : they weren’t allowed to talk about the cases during these parties, they deserved a break from all of that darkness they faced at work. But they always made an exception when it came to funny anecdotes. And tonight, the main subject was JJ. 

“Do you remember that time in Las Vegas?”

“Which one?”

“Not when you were pregnant, the first time” said Reid

“Oh god please no” JJ tried to kick his leg to make him stop, but it didn’t work. 

“We had closed a case after ten days of hard work, we were all exhausted but we had one last night. JJ drank _a lot_.”

“Oh my god JJ did you have sex with a hot stranger? And accidentally left a voicemail to Hotch with some pretty explicit noises” Asked Penelope, excited. 

“That’s your area of expertise Penelope” answered JJ as Penelope hit her in a friendly way

“Oh no, she didn’t. But she did get in a fight” said Reid, as he was starting to laugh.

Emily glanced at JJ and raised an eyebrow. 

“JJ got into a bar fight?” Asked Luke, shocked. “Wow”

“Nope, I didn’t” 

Everyone looked at her, confused. 

“I was sober, she was drunk. I didn’t want her to go back to the hotel alone, so I decided to walk with her. At some point, she wasn’t really paying attention to where she was going and she didn’t see the tree right in front of her.”

“Oh god” JJ put her head on her hands, she didn’t want to see the reaction on her friend’s faces. 

“And she got angry, but like, really angry. She yelled at the tree, she wanted it to move out of her way, and since it wasn’t answering, she said “oh, so, you wanna do this the hard way don’t you?” and she-“ Reid stopped himself, he couldn’t control his laugh “she punched it, really really hard, I had never seen someone punch a tree this hard…well, I had never seen someone _actually_ punch a tree, but I’m sure it was hard.”

Everyone started laughing, JJ’s cheeks were bright red. “I was really drunk and really tired okay?”

Emily tried to calm down and said “So the tree didn’t want to move, and the only logical response to this was to..punch it?” Tears of laughter were in the corner of her eyes. 

“I guess?” JJ started laughing too. 

“Well JJ, I would have never thought you were that kind of drunk, please remind me to not mess with you when we go out” said Matt. 

“Careful Matt, how many glasses of wine did she drink tonight?” Asked Luke, with a fake whisper. 

“C’mon guys, it was ten years ago, I was tired, I was single, young and I didn’t know how to hold my liquor. I changed” complained JJ.

“Still, we’ll be careful” said Rossi, laughing as he got up “I need to go get the dessert”. 

“Please tell me there’s no cake” asked JJ, hopeful. 

“Who do you think I am? Of course there is”

JJ hated being the center of attention, and the worst thing for her was when everyone would sing to her. “Please please don’t sing guys, I’ll give you whatever you want, I’ll do your paperwork for a month, I’ll pay you”. 

Everyone looked at her, making it very clear that they were going to sing. Rossi came back with the cake and a lot of candles on it. Much to the discontent of the birthday girl, they all sang, the whole song, really loudly. After blowing all of the candles at once, and eating a piece of cake, they all went to the so-called “dance floor”. JJ asked for everyone’s attention.

“So, yeah, obviously I haven’t prepared anything, since I was the _only one_ that didn’t know what was about to happen. But I just want to say a few words. I’ve worked at the BAU for ten years now. Rossi, you’re the reason I applied, and you guys are the reason why I stayed. We all know this job is hard, but you guys? You make everything a little bit easier. You’re my family. I love you all so much. Penelope and Spence, you are both my best friends, you’re my sons god parents, Tara, Luke and Matt, we haven’t known each other for long, but I would trust you with my life, and I know that if I need a kick in the ass…or a good pasta recipe, I know I can count on you Dave. And..” JJ looked at Emily, they didn’t need to say it out loud, they knew it was time to tell them everything. “Emily…you make me feel alive.” JJ looked at everyone, one by one. “We should have told you this earlier, but now feels like a good time to come clean.” 

Her heart was beating so fast she thought she was about to pass out. “I thought I wasn’t made for love, that it just wasn’t for me, and I was okay with it I guess. And then, I met Emily, and I felt things that I never thought existed. I fell hard. And we started seeing each other. At first, we didn’t know how serious it was gonna be, so we didn’t tell anyone, and then there was never a right time, there was always a tough case, or a wedding, and of course we’d never steal the spotlight. So yeah, I just wanted to say that I’ve been seeing Emily for almost a year, and it’s been the best year of my life. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you this sooner, you’re my family, and I really hope you’ll accept us” She reached out for Emily’s hand. 

“Accept you?” Asked Rossi, shocked. “Why would we need to accept you? You’re family, we’re just happy for you!” He said with a big smiled. Everyone cheered, and hugged. Like they said, they were family, and in a family, they love one another, no matter what. 

“Okay now let’s DANCE” said Garcia as she turned on the music. No one was surprised when they heard the first notes of “Heroes” by David Bowie. It had became their song, ever since Penelope said it was the song she heard in the ambulance when she almost died, this song had a special meaning to them. It was real tribute to life, it was to celebrate everything they had been through together as a team, as a family. It was the thing that made Penelope fight for her life in that ambulance. It was this song, and the fact that she knew she had these people that needed her, that loved her and supported her. She didn’t just find a job, she had found the family she never had. They sang at the top of their lungs. 

At some point, JJ needed to catch her breath, so she stepped back a little and looked at everyone having fun. She liked that view. 

“Hey you” said Garcia as she stood next to her best friend. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just needed a break from all of the dancing” 

“Who would have thought that dancing was so physically challenging?”

JJ laughed at the sight of her best friend, holding her stomach, trying to breathe. 

“I gotta say, I’m kinda disappointed, I thought you were gonna freak out” said JJ “you know, about me and Em”

“Oh trust me I did, just not today” said Garcia with a smirk

“What?” 

“Well, I had serious doubts, I mean you were friends but something was different about you too, I just couldn’t figure out why. And then you said “love you” last week, and that’s when I knew I was right. Especially when you freaked out, it was funny by the way.” Penelope poked her.

“Okay, I guess we weren’t as discreet as we thought”

“Oh yes you were, but it’s me, Penelope Garcia, we’re talking about, I might not be a profiler, but I’m an expert at discovering secrets.”

“Yeah, you definitely are.” JJ laughed. 

The songs changed and “I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams started playing. “I believe it’s the perfect song to slow-dance to, and you don’t want to make her wait, right?” Whispered Penelope in JJ’s ear.

Emily was standing in the middle of the dance floor, looking at her. JJ joined her and wrapped her arms around her neck while Emily rested her hands on the younger woman’s hips. They started moving slowly, following the song. They looked around, Matt and Rossi were dancing with their wives, Tara and Reid were dancing together, and Penelope and Luke were trying to, but apparently Luke wasn’t the best dancer. 

The height difference was perfect, JJ got closer to Emily and rested her head against the brunette’s chest as they were moving quietly. JJ grabbed one of Emily’s hands and brought it closer to her face and placed a soft kiss on her hand. Emily had her eyes closes, enjoying the moment. It was as if they were alone, everything around them disappeared. It’s when they realized that an enormous weight had been taken off their shoulders, they were finally free, free to be in love, and free to show it to the world. 

“This. This is perfect” said JJ softly, closing her eyes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was it, there's only one chapter left now, i'll post it next saturday probably. If you liked it please leave some comments/kudos, it means the world to me to know that some people actually enjoy what i write? (yes my lack of self confidence is showing). anyway, have a good day/night and i'll see you next saturday. Stay home, stay safe guys.
> 
> \- Jo (@samludgay)


	11. a day off 2.0

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, i'm back with the last chapter of this fic. I'm not gonna lie, it feels weird, it's the first "long" fic i've written and actually posted until the end. I really hope you're gonna like that last chapter, hopefully it's a good enough ending :)

“Emily, Emily” Michael was pulling on the brunette’s arm. 

Emily, JJ, Henry and Michael were all at the fair. It happened once a year, the kids would dress up, eat too much candies, play games, have fun, and the parents would come back from it with a headache. It was a sunny day, they had a real day off, there was no new case, they could enjoy it fully with the kids. It was perfect. 

“What?” Asked Emily

“I want to tell you something” he said. 

She squatted to be at his height. Michael got close to her, and whispered in her ear. “can we get some more ice cream?”

She whispered back “why aren’t you asking your mom?”

“Because she’s going to say no”

“And what makes you think I’m gonna say yes”

“Henry told me to ask me because you can’t say no to a cute kid like me” he repeated his brother’s words.

She glanced at Henry, who was next to his mom, he was watching her, hoping she’d say yes. 

“Let me see what I can do” she looked at the boys and put a finger on her lips, telling them to stay quiet. 

She got up and stood next to her girlfriend. She whispered in her ear. “Babe?”

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering…would it be possible to get some more ice cream?”

“You guys already had two ice creams and a lollipop, I think you ingested enough sugar for a week” said JJ, looking serious. 

But Emily didn’t give up, she was determined to get the boys their ice creams. 

“Can’t we find an agreement?” Asked Emily

“No, no way, sorry guys”

Emily looked at Henry, who seemed disappointed “don’t worry, I’ve negotiated with terrorists and bank robbers, I think I can handle your mom”

JJ started laughing “okay, show us your talent Prentiss”. 

“We want ice cream. What do _you_ want? I’m sure there’s something you want, deep down”

“Nope, I’m not hungry, sorry”

“Oh really?” Emily looked at her with a smirk, she obviously had something in mind. 

“How about a crunchy snack, bright orange, that you love so much? huh?”

“Not hungry, I already told you.”

Emily smiled and reached for her bag. She opened it to show it discreetly to JJ, just like if they were smuggling something. “You let me buy Henry and Michael ice cream, and it’s aaaaall yours”. 

JJ sighed, and said “okay sure, but just one and then no more sugar for these little guys, and the same goes for you missy” she looked at Emily. 

The boys rushed to the nearest ice cream stand. Emily was about the follow them but JJ stopped her. “gimme”. 

Emily chuckled and gave her the small bag of Cheetos. “there you go”

“thanks” JJ said with a big smile. She really did like this junk food. 

Henry and Michael were waiting impatiently for the brunette. Emily ruffled the boys hair before saying “I knew this emergency Cheeto bag would come in handy one day. So, what flavor do you want?”

Michael shouted “chocolate!” 

And Henry asked for strawberry, more quietly. 

When they came back to JJ, Michael was almost done with his ice cream, the sugar rush was about to kick in, and a four years old during a sugar rush is the worst nightmare of any parents. After playing a few games, Michael wanted to go to the playground to play with other kids, so they left the fair to go to the other side of the park. Michael asked Henry to play with him. Even though Henry kept saying he was too old for these things, he secretly loved it, so he followed his brother, leaving the two women sitting on the grass. 

As they were watching the boys closely, they had seen too many cases of kidnapping to not be super careful about it, JJ asked her girlfriend “do you think it’s the right time? To tell them?”

“It’s up to you, but in my opinion, yes, they had a good day, and they’re happy, so I think it’s a good time.”

“I have to say…I’m nervous.”

“It’s normal, they’re your kids, and you want what’s good for them, and you’re scared they’re somehow gonna get hurt by this. But deep down, you know that all they want is their mommy to be happy, I promise you they’re gonna be happy”

“You’re right, and I hate that, why are you always so wise?”

“That’s thanks to my old age, kid.”

JJ rolled her eyes “Ohh right, of course, how could I ever forget I’m dating an old woman” 

“It’s every baby gay’s dream, dating an older woman”

“And I was lucky enough to make mine actually come true” JJ said as she rested her head on Emily’s shoulder. 

“But I’m serious, your boys are gonna be okay, and trust me, with what I did for them today, they’re gonna be thrilled to have me around all the time to negotiate with their mother.”

“I’m sure they will” JJ chuckled. She was incredibly lucky, having someone like Emily in her life, italmost felt surreal. 

The sound of Michael crying brought them back to reality. He had fallen off the swing and Henry was helping him get up. JJ came to check up on him. “What happened baby?”

“I- I-“ Michael wouldn’t stop crying

“He fell when he got off the swing, but it wasn’t a big fall” said Henry, still holding his brother, who was still bawling his eyes out, just like every little boy does, even though it doesn’t hurt much. 

“Do you need a magic kiss from mama? It makes the pain go away just like that, poof” JJ said as she snapped her fingers. 

“Yes”

“Where?”

Michael showed her his scrapped knee, which JJ kissed immediately. 

“You’re right, it’s magic”

“Of course it is, c’mon, I think it’s time to go home”. She lifted Michael and carried him in her arms as they made their ways to the car. Michael stopped crying when she installed him in the infant car seat. 

After checking if everyone had buckled up, JJ started the car. The ride home went smoothly, they had left at the right time, there was no traffic. 

“Mom? Can Emily stay for dinner?” Asked Michael, with the cutest puppy eyes. 

“I don’t know, can she?” She turned her head to look at her girlfriend. 

“I mean, I was planning on it, of course I’ll stay”

“YES” the boys shouted, happy that the brunette was gonna eat with them. 

JJ parked in front of her house. Emily and Henry got out of the car and walked to the door, waiting while JJ was unbuckling Michael. They all came into the house, the boys jumped on the couch and turned on the TV. Even though JJ didn’t really like it when they spent too much time in front of cartoons, she let them so that she could be alone with Emily. She started cooking, she was just gonna make pasta so that the kids wouldn’t have to wait too long.

“How can I help?” Asked Emily. 

“Start by setting the table, I don’t want you near anything that could catch on fire babe”

“When are you gonna let this go? It happened ONE TIME”

“I would have let this go if the fire department hadn’t been involved”

“Go set the table, it’s safer”

“Okay” Emily pretended to be offended before grabbing some plates. 

In thirty minutes, dinner was ready, and JJ had even let Emily making the salad. As they were about to call Henry and Michael to come eat, Emily asked “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I am, I’m tired of secrets”

“Then let’s go”

“Boys!” JJ shouted “dinner’s ready!”. 

“coming” shouted Henry in return. 

The dinner went well, Michael insisted on sitting next to Emily, and kept talking to her, telling her everything he was learning in school, and the brunette listened carefully. The little kid was really attached to the woman. JJ couldn’t help but smile at that view. Henry was eating in silence, he had always been more shy, he probably got that from his mother. When everyone was done with their meals, Henry asked “can we go back to watch TV?”

“First of all, you know the rule, no TV before bed, and second of all, I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?” Asked Michael, curious. 

“First of all, I want you to know that I love you so so so much.”

“We love you too mommy” Michael got up from his chair to put his head on his mom’s thighs. It was his way of hugging her since he was too small. She grabbed him to make him sit with her. 

“Henry do you remember what you asked me in the car the other day?”

“When I asked you if I was in love?”

“Yes, and I didn’t give you an answer. And that answer is yes.”

“What is it? Being on love?” Asked Michael innocently. 

“It’s _in_ love. And it’s when you love someone a lot, every time you see them you feel butterflies in you belly, you want to hug them and kiss them all the time, you laugh with them, when you’re sad you want to see them because you know they can make you feel better. It means you want to grow old with them, you want to spend every second of your life with them, because life is precious and you don’t want to miss anything.” Said JJ, glancing at Emily. 

“Like daddy and Alicia?”

“Just like daddy and Alicia”. 

“Who are you in love with?” Asked Henry

JJ took a deep breath and said “Emily”. 

Michael looked at Emily “Are you in love with mommy too?”

“Yes, I’m very much in love with her”

“Does that mean you’re going to give me a present for my birthday?” Asked Michael with sparkles in his eyes “because ‘licia always gives me one”. 

Emily started laughing “You know I already do, right? I’m the one that gave you your super cool fire truck.”

Michael looked at her with a bright smile. JJ looked at Henry, who was being quiet. 

“You okay buddy?” She asked him. He nodded. “Do you know what that mean?”

The older boy shook his head. 

“Come here” said JJ. 

He got up and came near his mom. She looked at her two sons. “It means that you two are the only boys in my life, it’s a privilege”

They both smiled, genuinely happy for their mom, and hugged her so tight that she had trouble breathing. Michael was the first one to let go, he jumped from his mother’s leg, so that it could go hug the brunette. He whispered in her ear “are you going to live here now?”. 

She winked at him “Maybe”. 

“Mom?” Asked Henry, with the smile of an angel. “Could we just watch one cartoon? And then we go to bed”. 

JJ looked at him suspiciously. 

“I promise” he said, showing his hands to prove that he wasn’t crossing his fingers. He always did that to convince her mom. 

“you promise you and Michael will behave?” She asked

“Yes! I promise” he looked at his brother “c’mon Michael tell her you promise”. 

Michael copied his brother and show his hands “promise!”. 

“Okay let’s go” she looked at Emily “we’ll clean the table later”. 

Michael grabbed Emily’s hand and ran to the couch. They all sat down, Michael on Emily’s lap and Henry next to JJ. 

“What do you wanna watch?” 

“Phineas and Ferb!” Said Henry while Michael said “Arthur!”

Henry looked at his brother “No! You always watch Arthur! I wanna watch Phineas and Ferb”. 

“Boys? Remembered what you promised?”

“But mooom I don’t like Arthur” said Henry, pulling on her arm. 

“Well if you can’t decide on your own, I’m the one making the decision. And we’re gonna watch My Neighbour Totoro”

It was the only movie that her kids liked and that she could bear to watch over and over again. She pressed play, and they all started watching the movie. After twenty minutes, Michael was buried in Emily’s arms, and she could feel his steady breathing. He was asleep. JJ noticed it too and whispered “I’m gonna carry him to bed”. 

“I can do it, don’t worry”

“Okay” JJ smiled and kissed her son on the forehead “Goodnight honey”. 

Emily carefully got up, making sure she wasn’t waking Michael up. Fortunately, he had put his pyjamas on before dinner, so all she had to do was putting him in his bed. She walked up the stairs, opened his room’s door and delicately put him in his bed, under his covers. As she was about to leave the room, she heard him whisper, half asleep “Goodnight Emily”. It almost made her tear up, the way he spent the day with her, they were basically attached at the hip. 

She went back to the living room, and ran into JJ in the stairs, carrying Henry, who was asleep too. “I’ll be back in a minute” she whispered to not make up her son. 

“Okay” Emily smiled and walked down the stairs. Instead of going back to the living room, she decided to clean the table and do the dishes, so that JJ wouldn’t have to do it in the morning. Five minutes later, JJ had joined her and they were almost done. 

“Do you wanna finish the movie?” Asked Emily

“Meh, I’m kinda tired and to be honest I know that movie by heart. But if you want to, we can”

“It’s okay, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna know that movie by heart soon too” Emily winked at her. “So you wanna go to bed?”

“Yeah, I’m exhausted”. 

They turned off all of the lights, checked if the door was locked, and went into JJ’s bedroom. In no time, both of them were cuddling in bed. The house was quiet, the kids were asleep, and they were about to be too. 

“It feels really good, to be out to everyone here” said JJ, looking at Emily. 

“It really does”

“How would you feel about moving in? With me and the boys? I know you said before that you wanted to, but now that it’s real, would you?”

“I would love to”

Emily leaned in to kiss her girlfriend gently. They both closed their eyes, resting their heads on their pillows. They fell asleep like that, holding each other, and they couldn’t wait to do that every night for the rest of their lives. 

_Friedrich Nietzsche said “In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony”_. 

After so many losses, heartbreaks, after everything life had put them through, Jennifer Jareau and Emily Prentiss had finally found that oil, that cement, that music. They had found it in each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so yeah, that's it, it's over! I recently read a OS and the author used the same quote i did in the end, but it's purely coincidental haha.  
> If you liked my fic please let me know in the comments. Btw thank you so much for all of the support, it really helped me not give up. I've already started writing another one, my exams are next Wednesday (wish me luck i'm definitely gonna need it lmao), so i might post the first chapter next weekend? I'll see :)
> 
> Stay home, stay safe, and see you soon
> 
> \- Jo (@samludgay on twitter)


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